Did you know that erasers are not used in the Primary art rooms at the Regency Park Campus? At all times, whether students are drawing in their sketchbook or on a piece of art paper, students do not work with erasers. The reason for this is simple: erasers train a young artist to edit and criticise their work, and this inhibits creativity. As such, students at the Regency Park make their art freely, and any “mistakes” make their art unique and interesting. Throughout the school year, Primary students have been learning how to incorporate those so-called “mistakes” into their drawing, and they have recently displayed the outcomes on campus.

With the help of numerous YCIS parents and teachers, two pieces of artwork from every student from Years 1–4 were put on display in the green courtyard on campus last week during the annual Primary Art Show. When parents, teachers, family friends and students walked around the Art Show, they were impressed not only with the stunning final products in the immense collection, but also with the process it took to create the pieces.

When looking at the Year 1 artwork focused on Orange Tigers, viewers could see the boldness of the artists’ hands in the black oil pastel lines. Looking at the Year 2 Honeybee collagraph project or the Year 3 Silkscreen prints, viewers could imagine the trial and error it took to arrive at the works of art that were on display. When peering into the “distance” created in the Year 4 Great Wall tunnel books, viewers appreciated the layers of soft pastel that went into making the bricks. In all of these projects, students gave their best effort, exercised their problem-solving skills and pushed forwards past mistakes, not allowing errors to prevent them from creating great artwork!

Ms Anita Dai and Ms Amanda Schofield, Primary Art Teachers, say, “This flexibility of thinking is exactly what the YCIS school mission is all about. We want our students to be ready to take on any problem they meet in the real world, starting here, in the art room, with just a crayon and a piece of paper.”